india's rapid growth is coming at a speed (a speed aided by massive environmental and human justice violations) that will benefit only those who have already benefited.
i call this 'developedment', meaning, more and more development for those who have already developed, but more and more destruction for the 2 crucial pillars of the nation, namely the ecology and the ecology dependent people.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

you might want to catch up on one side of india. the side that is represented by big flying industrialists. nytimes has the story on ambani here.

you also might want to catch up on the other side of india. an india whose idea has been lost in name of fake development. whereas mindless and ruthless and dirty industrialization bulldozed by rich industrialists and their political cronies have unleashed an virtual war on poor peasants, tribals and other rural marginalized sections.

"Why take away fertile, multi-crop lands for industrialisation, is the question several farmer communities are asking, in the absence of any meaningful dialogue with a government that has signed MoUs with over 45 steel producers. The Posco steel plant requires 12,000-15,000 crore litres of water. According to the MoU, the Government of Orissa will ensure all permissions and infrastructure for drawing and use of water from the Mahanadi barrage at Jobra. If implemented as per project reports, an 87 km pipeline will draw the waters allocated for drinking and irrigation needs of erstwhile undivided Cuttack district, now Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack."

the posco project (and many such like posco project) projects the ugly side of india, especially the ugly side of indian government, the ugly side of rich industrialists and the ugly side of cricket crazy/bollywood crazy clueless indian media.

stories like posco abound in india and there are many posco's within reliance too wherein bulldozing using ruthless tactics to acquire land, to pollute the land and to destroy nature and the poor who depend on these vital ecosystems like the villages of Dhinkia and Paatana (just barely 125 kms from the capital city of bhuaneswar) are seeing.

well, stories like this don't come in newyork times. but stories about real india never come out either.(villagers of Dhinkia and Paatana just 125 kms from orissa's capital city is facing complete displacement and grab of their land - all in name of mindless and dirty mining proposal from posco.)